Photos In Marketing

I remember teaching myself Photoshop before I ever knew I wanted to be a photographer. I focused more on the graphics I could create to add to the clothing line I had started in high school.

Years later, after the clothing line, I fell into photography and saw the benefits of being able to edit photos outside of iPhoto (now Photos).

A few years later I was introduced to Lightroom where I could not only edit my images but organize them, and I was hooked!

This editing software was everything I could ever want for my professional grade photos, but when I started using my iPhone as a second camera for everyday life and a great way to build extra content for my social feeds, I needed something new.

I tried using Lightroom on my phone, but it was just too much. I liked being able to have full control over the image but with a small file, you can't do as much. So now I use two different apps to edit my photos. Usually, one right after the other before I post to Instagram.

Snapseed

Snapseed is the dummies version of Photoshop for your phone. It allows you to heal blemishes, change exposure, increase or decrease the saturation or dodge and burn with their brush tool. You can add filters (although, I wouldn't reccomend any of the filters on this app), add a vignette, increase/decrease the exposure, contrast, saturation, brightness, shadows and so on. You have full control over your images to fix small problems or change the entire look and feel all together!

After you've fixed that zit and made the background exposure even (my top two fixes), then it's time for the fitlers.

VSCO

If you haven't heard of VSCO, it's not only a provider of filter presets but a community of photographers. You aren't just limited to getting filters for your phone but can get them for Lightroom too.

When I first started using VSCO, I bought individual packs of filters (3-5 in a bunch) that worked for my style. Now they provide you with all of them for a few dollars a month. Here's the biggest tip when it comes to filters. Choose 3.

No more.

If you are using these photos for your business you want to have cohesion; you want a look.

Choose 3.

When you are editing photos for yourself to post on your personal Facebook page, the sky is the limit. But for your business . . .

Choose 3!

If you love these phone photography resources, then you'll the full 7-Days to Phone Photography For Your Business. It's a great resource for improving your photography, creating great content for your social media and of course learning how to tell your story to connect with your audience. What are you waiting for?

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Our to-do lists are long, our dreams are big and time is limited. There always has to be a creative obstacle.

This is when we take the photo we posted on Instagram and just share it to Facebook and call it good to get to the next task on our list.

There's one problem with this. Actually, there are a few problems with this.

Share a photo from Instagram to Facebook doesn't translate well. Each social platform has its own language so to speak, and Instagram and Facebook don't share the same one.

The tag's you add to your Instagram post or the hashtags you use won't look the same on Facebook. And your audience that loves Facebook will see your game and stop following. They want you to show up for them.

Facebook also prioritizes native content to its feed, so your posts won't see as many people.

Obviously, these are all things you didn't want to hear, and now you're wondering "Can I even post the same image to multiple platforms?" and let me tell you, friend, YES!

Get the most out of those photos you invested in. Share them everywhere, just make sure that they are native to the platform you are posting.

Take this post as an example:

Instagram

I first posted this image I took on Instagram. I told the story of getting married and wanting to have a honeymoon somewhere adventurous. I then added all my hashtags into a comment and let it fly.

Facebook

Here I posted the same image on Facebook and rewrote the caption with the same idea behind it. My goal with this image was to get some engagement and get a few new ideas for a honeymoon spot.

Here's my secret to posting an Instagram image and then reusing it on Facebook. Once I use a photo from my Photos app on my iPhone on Instagram, I then move that photo into a new "Facebook Folder" and delete the original. This way I know I've used it on Instagram and I need to use it on Facebook.

Then when I'm ready to post on Facebook, I've already got my list of photos to use. I can then use the same content in the caption or change things up and say something new.

Here is what you need to remember.

You might have the same people following you on Facebook that you don't on Instagram or any other platform. Your content has to have some differences if you want them to follow you on everything, otherwise, what's the point?

Your customer is why you do anything.

Remember to think about them in your publishing process and really decide what it is they want to see. They are, after all, the whole reason you have this business.

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Those are some big words, and it's easy for me to say, I'm a photographer. But they're true. I could give you a list of articles that will explain to you how important photography is to your business from people who aren't photographers and I've even listed a few at the bottom of this post.

Read them, frame them, take them to heart.

When you are a small brand, it can be hard to invest in your photography and even harder to find the funds for it in which case the answer to how often should you get new photos for your business is when you can afford it. Ideally, I'd set aside the funds for at least once a quarter.

When you get fresh photos quarterly, you can keep up with the seasons and have photos that match your customer's mood. Photos with the golden leaves in the summer, snow in the winter (maybe even Christmas lights), flowers in the spring and all that fun in the sun during the summer.

These photos will help you freshen up your website, provide some content for your social media and tell the story of any new products you've added to your collection.

If you're a little more developed as a brand and have a larger marketing budget then ideally you should be getting new photos for your brand every 4-6 weeks. That might sound like a lot, but you'll then have plenty of fresh and high-quality content to share on social media. You'll also always have a fresh website to show off the lifestyle of your products and let your customers see what your product looks like in action.

Great photography makes your brand look legit. You would NEVER see Nike put up a bad phone photo on their website or even on their Instagram. Even smaller brands like Ssesko and 31bits have invested tons into their photography to provide great storytelling images that will capture the attention of their viewers.

These companies will go even as far as taking photos for special holidays like Mother's Day; it's the perfect way to connect with their ideal customer's or their husbands.

If you're wondering, will photography really make a difference in my brand? The answer is yes. It won't necessarily make you, but it will break you if it's bad.

If you're wondering, do I need to invest in photography for my business? The answer is eventually. If you're starting out you might be able to get by with your friend learning out to use their new DSLR or embracing the portrait mode of your phone. As your business becomes more official and it starts growing you need the eye, technical knowledge, and experience of a professional photographer. The sooner you can build your arsenal of powerful images, the better.

If you're wondering, where can I find the right photographer for my business? The answer is easy. You can send me an email, and we can see if we'd be a right fit, or look at hashtags on Instagram with your city and the word photographer or commercial photographer. (#DenverCommercialPhotographer or #DenverProductPhotographer, etc.)

Photos that tell a story, highlight your product and put your customer into them will do more for your business then almost any other marketing you'll pay for. It starts with an amazing photo, and from there you do the rest.

What are you waiting for? When will you schedule your first photo shoot?

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There are only a few brands that I follow religiously. These brands are ones I've been in love with since High School or College, so it's fair to say they're doing something right.

Krochet Kids Intl. is one of those brands you can't help but fall in love with. They have a compelling story that they share beautifully, high-quality garments that will last forever, and they're a brand that gives back, making you feel good with every purchase. They figured out a business model and marketing strategy, and they've killed it in the execution.

Every platform their on shares their story, shows off their products and entertains their audience but let's take a deeper dive into their Facebook page.

Right off the bat, you see powerful, clean, minimal images on their Facebook. Their cover photos is a lifestyle shoot from their new line. Scroll down, and the first few images you see are from that photo shoot. However, they aren't here to sell clothes; they are selling a story. The story of the women who made your clothes, the adventures that you take these pieces on and the connection we feel for both those things.

In every photo there is one common element, it's a glimpse into the lifestyle you want; Whether that is traveling to far off places, living in a trendy city or staying warm in the original Krochet Kids hat during a snowstorm. It's easy to picture yourself as the subject in these photos making you dream of what your life would be like with a Krochet Kids product in your life.

The next push they give you is the permission to shop. Theirs no guilt trip of buying yet another hat when you know a woman in Uganda hand made it, and you are supporting her and her family. This is further ingrained by knowing that these products were made to last with customer testimonials raving about this brand.

Finally, there's the captions and the call to action. Nowhere on their page do they say "Buy now." In very few captions do they even call you to action to go to the website or to take any action. They know that by putting a product out there, you know what the next step is if you fall in love with it. They don't need to beat a dead horse, as they say.

Instead, their captions speak inspiration. They tell the behind the scenes stories of the founders and the women making your products. They speak to your adventurous side and mention the little things in life that bring you joy. They aren't selling to you, they are showing you inside their world and letting you know you can join any time. That's a powerful way to use Facebook. It's a great way to add value to your customer's life and make it about them and not you. Because in the end, it is about them and what your product or service can do for their life. That's the only reason we buy anything.

If there are three things you could take away from Krochet Kids' Facebook page it's these:

Great photography makes all the difference! - Powerful images that tell a story, showcase your products and connect with your audience will do more favors for you than any other kind of marketing. Keep them clean and simple.

Showcase the lifestyle that your customers can dream themselves into - Through captions, video and photography show your customers what their lives could look like. Paint a vivid image for them so that it's not hard to picture.

Stop selling to your customers - They know that if there is a product in your images or talked about on a post, it's up for sale. Use the purchase tags on Facebook to provide an easy way for them to find your product without selling. Instead, use captions that inspire and entertain. My favorite call to action on the Krochet Kids' Facebook page was "Tap to meet the new 'Astrid' pant."

As a business, you'll always find yourself "selling" at some point. That's fine, it happens. Aim to sell in only a quarter of your posts (1 in 4) so that it doesn't feel like that's all you care about. Your audience wants to know that they are important too so engage with them. Bring them the content that they want to see and that will get them coming back for more and sprinkle your products into the mix.

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Instagram recently released archived stories, where little bubbles sit on your profile page and you can save stories you posted into categories that will last forever. Say goodbye to the 24-hour effect and say hello to one more place you cant tell a story and show off your brand.

When I first started using the archived stories I simply saved fun stories I had posted into random categories in which nobody ever really looked at them. Why would they? I'm not Kristen Bell, my everyday life is not nearly as exciting.

What I came to realize is that just like every other social platform this is excellent marketing space. These archived stories could be a way to serve, to tell a deeper story and to offer something that my client really wants. And the more that I look into successful Instagram accounts I'm seeing that I wasn't the only one with this idea.

Currently, I have 5 categories on my profile page; Product, Lifestyle, Photography, Shop, and Blog. Here I showcase my work and tips to offer up something of use to my viewers. I also will show special deals, new products or themes for my shop and post my new blog posts in the blog section. This is what I have going now. But I'm sure in a couple weeks or a couple months I change things up to provide new content and more powerful stories that connect with my audience. This is still a game of A/B testing to see what works, what people resonate with and to keep creating that.

One trend I'm sure you'll notice is the matching cover photos for the bubbles. This is super easy to make! If you have photoshop or Canva you create an image that 1080x1920 and add a symbol in there that will be your cover photo. You can have more images or text around it but that round symbol will be the actual cover. From there you just upload your images to stories and save them to your archive. When you edit your highlights you'll be able to change your cover photo and make it all matchy matchy and beautiful!

The question isn't if you should be using Archived Stories, the question is how will you be using them? I'd love to hear how your making use of this free marketing space! I'm always open to a good idea and to some creative thinking.

The internet is a beautiful place. Where else could you go to get all your questions answered and resources provided? As business owners, it’s easy to feel like you have the world at your fingertips just by having this thing called the internet. But hold up! With great power comes great responsibility and there are a lot more rules out there than you know.

As business owners, we want to save money and still have a brand that touches our customers. For that we need images. High-quality, large format photos aren’t always easy to come by. Because of that, we look through Google Images hoping to find something that will work for us and use in our marketing. There’s only one problem with that; it’s not legal. As soon as a person creates something a Copyright is applied giving the creator full rights to their creation. The author alone has the right to reproduce, create derivative works, distribute and publicly display their work throughout their lifetime and 25 years after. There are limitations to this when it comes to employing a person (not hiring a freelance photographer such as a wedding, portrait or commercial photographer who only shoots for you once.)

The thing with copyright laws is it will end up costing you a lot more for that free photo then it would have for you to hire a photographer or take the time to find royalty-free images (copyrighted images that do not require a licensing fee.) In many cases, copyright infringement goes unnoticed. In the few cases that it is caught, here's how it will break down. First, the owner of the copyrighted material will reach out asking for credit and or a licensing payment. Next, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) will be notified asking to have the photo taken down. If the DMCA finds that you are using copyrighted material, they have permission to remove it from your website. Next, you'll receive a cease and desist Letter. If the images are still not paid for or taken down a copyright infringement lawsuit is put in place. In both the asking for a licensing fee, usually raised 3X the original price for infringing the copyright, or the lawsuit you'll end up paying an amount that's sure to break the bank. Now, don't you wish you bought photos that matched your brand and didn't come with this hassle?

Google Images, while limited, does have royalty free images. Under the settings tab you’ll find “Usage Rights” with a few different options; “Labeled For Reuse” will keep you covered no matter who you are. If you’re a company wanting to use these images commercially (On your website, in your marketing, etc.) the “Labeled For Reuse” is your safest option. Better than Google (who knew that was a thing?) are the royalty-free stock image sites. Websites like Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay provide images to the public at no cost without the requirement of giving authorship.

“More precisely, Unsplash grants you an irrevocable, non-exclusive copyright license to download, copy, modify, distribute, perform, and use photos from Unsplash for free, including for commercial purposes, without permission from or attributing the photographer or Unsplash. This license does not include the right to compile photos from Unsplash to replicate a similar or competing service.”

Photographers from around the world upload their works to these sites offering people a way to enhance their brand. The images on these sites, while incredible are limiting in what content you’ll find and are free to use by everyone, you’ll often see these photos on other people’s Instagram, social ads, etc.

Copyright law is pretty simple. If you didn’t create it, you didn’t buy it, and you can’t find the specific permissions to use it, you probably shouldn’t use it. Stick with royalty-free websites that plainly say you have permission to use these photos or invest in a photographer that will give you the specific images you’ve been searching for anyway. It’s easy to think that you can use any photo you come across, but the truth of the matter is, free images can be a lot more expensive than just buying the ones you actually want.

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Every company I talk with has the same fundamental issues. It all comes down to having small budgets and limited marketing abilities. If people can't see your brand then how are they supposed to fall in love with it? As I've talked to more and more small companies, I've heard the cries and continue to work towards solutions that will help your brand grow into the business of your dreams.

My latest change is adding a way to provide photography for new or growing brands. My Brand Building package provides you with high-quality professional images without gasping at the price. Here's how it works. You reach out to me and let me know what your business is struggling with. Tell me your story, talk about your product and let me know your vision. Then one of two things can happen. If you have a storefront I can come to your store for an hour shoot and capture as many pieces of yours I can, or you send me your product, and I'll come up with a single storyline that fits with your brand. You'll get a contact sheet with more options than your heart could desire. 20 images come with your package and any extras are $25 a piece. I can almost guarantee you'll want at least one or two extras!

The Brand Building Package was created with the new and growing brand in mind. You are no longer stuck with using your high-school intern to take your photos for big marketing promotions (unless they're just amazing, and then, who am I to talk?!) With a small investment a couple times of your you'll have a whole arsenal of photos to share with your audience and start making the connections you've been dreaming of. It starts with a great product and grows with skillful marketing, let's starts growing your brand. If you want something more than this or need some photos for your staff, check out the rest of my options here on the Commercial Prices Page.

The story of your brand is an important one, and your marketing will never go as far as you want it to go without powerful images to take you there. Your website, Facebook ads and even your brochures or annual report will blow your customers out of the water when you invest in your photography. Let's take the small budget you have, and make it go further with my Brand Building Package. Contact me today to get started on growing your business!

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As a photographer, I can see the abilities that photographs have on the brands I work with and the people I’ve photographed. But as a marketer, I can’t begin to explain the power and use that photographs have in marketing. Every brand I’ve worked for or with, I’ve educated on the importance of high-quality photos that match their company and tell their story. Whether you’re starting off on the cheap and looking for stock photos, or making the investment you deserve and getting custom photos for your marketing, having clean, clear and beautiful pictures will make all the difference when it comes to your customers.

I could go on and on about looking good as a brand or having something that you’ll be proud to put in front of your audience, but in the end, the numbers behind good photography in marketing are what’s going to make all the difference to you.

Let’s start with social media. There are over 3 billion users on a social platform, and on average those 3 billion users spend 2 hours looking through feeds, finding new products and getting inspired by brands. Tweets with images get 150% more retweets while Facebook posts with images get 2.3x more likes. These statistics are just the beginning of all the benefits that images can bring to your marketing plan.

When it comes to engagement, photos with people will get an average of 38% more engagement, 60% of customers are more likely to purchase products when images show up in their search results, and 94% of articles with images get more views. All this engagement doesn’t even touch the amount of information retained by using images. Personally, as a visual learner, images have always held more value to me. But what was shocking to me, in researching this topic I learned that you hold onto 65% more information through visuals than text. Even more amazing is that 93% of communication is “said” non-verbally and therefore more can be said through an image than through writing.

If none of these have you convinced that photography is your most useful tool in marketing, then let me leave you with these last few numbers. The brain processes an image 60,000 times faster than through words, on top of that when a customer is reading your marketing materials the majority of them will skim, only reading 28% of all that you’ve written. If instead of using text-heavy eblasts, brochures or social posts you used photo focused marketing materials you can show off your products, reveal the lifestyle of your brand and educate your customers in a fraction of the time and with less effort.

I cannot stress it enough what the power of images does for any business. As a photographer and marketer, I know that the most successful brands have found ways to use photography to tell a story and create more than just a business. Each image works off the last inspiring their followers and educating their customers. When you invest in photos, you are also investing in growing your brand and impacting your customers. It’s time to take the next step to build the brand you’ve always dreamed of. Take the leap and invest in your photography through my low-cost packages, made for small and new companies just like yours. You’ll get the photos you need to impress customers on social media, make an impact on your website and create the marketing plan your business deserves. Now all you need to figure out is what story you want to tell; I can help you with that! Learn more about my low-cost photography packages here.

I love working on my website. It's an obsession I have. Or it's that feeling of being a coder in an action movie where I'm saving the world on the back of a website. Not that I could do that, but a girl can dream can't she?

I do enjoy learning about coding, trying new things and finding new ways to improve my website and add value to the lives of my readers (that's you, I hope you're enjoying things!). Some of the things I've come to learn in my time of editing websites is the importance of loading speed and SEO. While I stress the importance of impeccable design and even better photos (that's why we're all here), none of that will matter if your site doesn't load fast enough and your customers leave before seeing your beautiful website. At the same time, if the search engines aren't finding you, then the speed of your site won't make a difference.

One of the fastest ways to improve your website's speed is to optimize your images. Photos tend to weigh down your site speed because you have to download them every time you open a page. Depending on how large of photos you are uploading to your site will determine how much time a page takes to load. Downsizing your images doesn't mean that you should forfeit quality. On the contrary, quality is always your goal. However, there are a few tricks you can use to decrease the size of your images and keep them looking flawless for your website.

To optimize your photos, you'll need editing software. I'll show you two different examples, Photoshop and Canva, but the same principle is valid with any software.

Optimize Photos With Photoshop

If you're using WordPress optimizing your photos is easy. Open up the image in your media library or by editing it in a post (use the pencil button when the image is clicked on) and edit the original. An editing box will open up, and all you have to do is change the dimensions. I change the width to 1,000 pixels to keep things simple and make sure that everything looks good on different computers.

When you open a photo in photoshop, you'll need to get into the image size panel through the Image button on the main menu. From there you'll adjust your images to a size that fits your needs. Here's what you need to remember, your resolution should never be above 150. In all reality, you can take it down to 72dpi since all digital screens use 72dpi, but I often like it at 150. You'll want to adjust the resolution first since it will alter your height and width, but you'll change those right after. When you change your resolution and your pixel sizes you can only go down, don't go up. Increasing these numbers will degrade the quality of your images so just don't do it.

Update the resolution to something between 72-150dpi then adjust your width to 1,000 pixels.

In the case of websites, I shrink my longest side down to 1,000 pixels usually. You can choose to make yours larger just in case, but I've found this to be a safe number for any screen size. Once you've changed your pixel sizes and resolution, it's time to save the image. PNG work well on social media, but they are larger file sizes. To ensure that your photos are taking up to much bandwidth save all images as a JPEG.

Create a board in Canva to the desired size of your photo (width of 1,000 pixels) then drop in your image.

Optimize Photos With Canva

Not everyone has Photoshop (even though a subscription for that an Lightroom combined is only $10 a month!), so if you are working on a tight budget but still want smaller images for your website, then Canva is the place for you. Canva is the beginners Photoshop. With layouts for social media posts, posters and everything else you can think of that you might need for graphic design it's a great place to make quick graphics for your business. It's also an easy way to optimize photos when you don't have a real photography editor.

Export your image as a JPG to decrease the file size.

After you make an account with Canva, you'll have a chance to create a board. If you make a custom board, you can choose the specific size of images you want for your website. You'll have to do all horizontal photos at one time and then the vertical images, but beggars can't be choosers. Type in the size you want, remembering that your width should almost always be 1000 (for the use of blog posts or elsewhere on your website). Then you can upload the images you want, drop them onto the board and export them one by one. Canva gives you different file options for exporting and just like with photoshop I recommend exporting your images as jpgs. The goal with any exported image is to be no more than 1-2MB in size.

Update your Alt Text so that search engines can find you. Remember to use keywords that people will use to search for your business.

SEO and Images

Don't think I forgot about the SEO of your images. Customers can't see your products and your story if they can't get to your website. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is no simple concept. Its the repetitive words in a site that search engines read and realize that your content is relevant to a user's search. Search engines have increased their game in the last few years so that search results are more accurate than ever and it's the use of SEO that continues to make this happen. When a search engine looks at your site, it's looking for a word or phrase and relevant phrases throughout your code to see if you are what a user is looking for. While the text on your website should always include the keywords you hope customers use to find you, your pictures should have them too!

On Wix update the "Tell Google" box with your Alt Text.

Whether you're using WordPress (like I do) or a drag and drop site like Wix, Weebly or Squarespace, they all have ways to name photos and create "Alt Tags." Every image you add to your site should use these two tags to their advantage. The title of the image will mostly help you when you are looking for pictures on your website. It's great to name pictures after its use, the product that's in it or the season for the product. The Renaming of photos are mostly for organizational use, but it can also serve as a bottom of the barrel form of SEO. You're Alt Tag is the real key to optimizing your photos for SEO. Search Engines use the Alt Tag to "see" photos. Since it's a machine doing the searching, it needs text to tell them what's in the photo. Your description is what helps you pop up in Google searches for images but can also serve as more keywords adding up to rank you on a Google page.

On WordPress, you can double-click on an image or go to your Media library to change the names and Alt Tags of all your pictures. Do some keyword research for your business and determine the words you want your company to focus on and then use them in these Alt Tags. Remember that the photos need to be relevant to what you are tagging them so saying "Sunglasses" in every image you post isn't helpful, search engines know when you are spamming them. Instead, describe the products in a picture or locations that are relevant to your audience.

Your website is your first impression to many of your customers; you don't want to disappoint them before they even get started. Optimizing your website, while time-consuming, can make all the difference in creating an excellent experience for your customers. If you're wondering how your website holds up, you can test your site speed with Pingdom. This site will let you know how long it takes to load your site and what's bogging it down. If it takes more than 1.5 seconds to load, you've got some optimizing to do!

If you've got questions on optimization or want to share the tips you've learned, feel free to leave a comment below!

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Let's be real, marketing is hard. There's really nothing about it that's easy. It takes a lot of thought, a lot of effort and works best when you plan ahead. When you think of all the things that go into marketing your business it get's a bit overwhelming and a lot of the time you might not have the time for it. In being a marketing manager for a few different brands along with my own I've learned a few things, storytelling is the most powerful marketing tool you have. Whether you are using words or images to tell the story, its what connects the most with your audience and when social media is oversaturated with advertisements and brands, the stories you share will be the thing that stands out.

Telling A Story With Words and Images

There are a few brands that I follow that market their brand perfectly. They focus on the lifestyle their products promise with an emphasis on the morals of their brand. In every post they create, these two things are clear. Take Patagonia for example. Throughout their Facebook page, you'll find photographs and videos of the adventures the outdoors bring. In some cases, you might see some close-ups of their clothes but everything comes back down to living a life of adventure and taking care of the earth that provides that adventure. Take the post below. With only a few words they show what's important to them, on Christmas they aren't asking you to buy more or to see their sale, they want you to focus on the important things just as they do. And what's even better is they give you a jaw-dropping image to go with it that shares the same story of embracing what matters.

Another way to tell a story is to actually tell a story using words. Instagram is the perfect place to showcase high-quality images of your product and that lifestyle that comes with it right next to a personal story. Sharing true stories about your life, things you've learned or want to teach or a behind-the-scenes story of the staff, this is a great place to do it. Having 2,200 characters to use gives you plenty of space to share a true story that will deepen the connection with your audience. Christ Burkard is a world-class adventure and landscape photographer. His Instagram has 2.9 million followers and counting and for good reason. Aside from the stunning photos he shares he does a great job telling stories alongside them, giving tips to amateur photographers and sharing conversations he has with friends. He adds an extra element to the photos he shares by diving deeper and providing a personal story to go with them.

Tailoring Your Images On Instagram

While all your social media should have high-quality, well-lit images that represent your brand, Instagram is by far the most important. Well maybe that and Pinterest, but we'll get to that. When you think of Instagram you should think of your feed as a visual magazine. Everything should be tailored to match the look and feel of your brand. Your brand has a look and feel, a mood with colors to match. When you build your Instagram you should have 1 color that flows through all the images (White, black or for me blue). You'll also want to choose whether your feed is light or dark.

LoneFlag has done a great job with this. All their photos have grey in them whether they showcase their product or the lifestyle. They keep a masculine tone to all their images and when you look at them together they feel like they go together.

KrochetKids puts a heavy emphasis on lifestyle with their products subtly placed in the images. They'll scatter in a few product only shots but for the most part, they want to sell you on the life that's lived with these products. Again they stick with a color scheme keeping a bit of blue in every photo and having a sharp focus and bold colors in every shot. When you look at a single image you fall in love with the product, when you look at their feed, you fall in love with the brand and lifestyle.

When it comes to building your Instagram you don't need all professional images. It's a great Idea to get as many professional photos in your marketing as possible, but we all have budgets. A great way to save is to pay for professional photos every couple months and get a batch of photos that you can spread out over time. In between that time learn a few tricks to iPhone photography and use apps like Snapseed and VSCO to edit the images and keep the same feel to them. If you can find a photographer that will work with you to help you take these images it's a great partnership to have. They'll hook you up every 1-3 months with photos and teach you a few tricks to use while you fill in the rest of the photos you want to most in between. (I would be more than happy to work with you on providing monthly photos as well as giving you a few pointers on taking photos on your phone!)

Also if you're looking for a great way to plan your Instagram posts in advanced and see what the photos will look like in your feed check out planoly. This is my favorite tool when it comes to Instagram and I think you'll like it just as much as I do!

Images On Pinterest

One of the last ways to share your story is through Pinterest. While the other platforms have a great way to share written stories along with visual stories, Pinterest is almost strictly images. The clear images that are lighter in color and have minimal elements are the most successful images on Pinterest. If you can add words to a post to bring others to your blog post or to share a quick story in a couple words these are often the most clicked on images. Providing a variety of these images gives you a better chance on getting clicks and directing people to your website.

Pinterest is the visual version of Google, it's an important place to have your content to get back to your website. However, just like Instagram, it's imperative that you have the highest quality images (best if they're long) to use in order to get people to click.

Your brand isn't like any other one out there so you have a story that's all your own to share. Finding ways to combine visual and written storytelling will help you connect with your audience on a deeper level and allow you to create not just customers but a community. If you're looking for someone to help build your portfolio of images that showcase your products and the lifestyle of your brand, I'm here for you. I'd be more than happy to help you build the photos you've been dreaming of sharing as well as giving you some pointers on how to take some great phone photos in between our photo shoot sessions. Contact me here, or leave a comment below and let's start capturing the story of your brand!

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Into The Wild

“The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” – Into The Wild